I am a professor and endowed professor at the University of Houston where I founded and direct the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and head the graduate program in space architecture. My background deals extensively with research, planning and design of habitats, structures and other support systems for applications in space and extreme environments on Earth. I have recently written a new book titled "Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax". It can be previewed and ordered at www.climateofcorruption.com. Additional information about my book and views can be found on my YouTube address: http://www.youtube.com/climateofcorruption.

Neil Armstrong's Immortal Footprint

Weekly Forbes Contributor , Professor Larry Bell, founded and directs the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) at the University of Houston where he also heads the Graduate Program in Space Architecture. In addition, he has co-founded several high-tech companies, including one supported by the late Neil Armstrong and other notable space and industry leaders as board members.

Neil Armstrong has now been inducted into history’s loftiest celestial ranks. He is greatly honored not only for what he accomplished, but fundamentally because of the inspirational spirit of exceptionalism he exemplified after America’s psyche was badly jolted by unexpected Cold War events. Those shock waves began on October 4, 1957 when a tiny Soviet satellite chirped alarming evidence of technological superiority. Then, three and one half years later, a young cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin leant his human face to a new extraterrestrial space era that threatened to leave the U.S. behind.

America immediately responded. On May 25, 1961, only a few weeks after Gagarin’s orbital flight, President John Kennedy upped the ante, committing the U.S. to send a man to the moon and return him safely before the end of that decade. He rallied the country to that cause, saying: “…no single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish…in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon–if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.”

And the remarkable clincher: “Let it be clear–and this is a judgment which the Members of the Congress must finally make–let it be clear that I am asking the Congress and the country to accept a firm commitment to a new course of action, a course which will last for many years and carry very heavy costs…If we are to go only half way, or reduce our sights in the face of difficulty, in my judgment it would be better not to go at all.”

We did that, and even better…. putting four of our citizens on the lunar surface and returning them by 1969, plus delivered two more into lunar orbit who returned with them. Within three more years, eight others had walked on the moon on successful round-trip voyages, along with four more orbital companions. Some of those same Apollo astronauts, and many daring predecessors, literally blazed that pathway. They flew on two suborbital and four Earth-orbital Mercury launches, nine Earth-orbital Gemini flights, two Earth-orbital Apollo tests, and two lunar-orbital tests that made those lunar surface landings possible.

That historic Apollo 11 landing wasn’t Neil’s first space cowboy rodeo. As Gemini 8 Command Pilot, his March 16, 1966 mission with Pilot David Scott entailed complex rendezvous and docking maneuvers with an unmanned Agena target vehicle which ultimately required recovery from a harrowing, out-of-control spacecraft roll. As NASA Flight Director Gene Krantz later reported, “…the mission planners and controllers had failed to realize that when two spacecraft are docked together, they must be considered one spacecraft.”

Neil Armstrong’s story confirms opportunities for common citizens to realize uncommon goals in America. Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio on August 5, 1930, an early fascination with aviation began when, at the age of two, his father took him to the Cleveland Air Races. He experienced his first airplane flight in a Ford Tri-motor “Tin Goose” four years later. By age 15 he had earned a pilot flight certificate. That was before he had a driver’s license.

In 1947 Neil enrolled in aerospace engineering at Purdue University as the second member of his family to attend college. He had also been accepted to MIT, but decided that it wasn’t necessary to go all the way to Cambridge, Massachusetts to get a good education. Under conditions of a scholarship requirement, he interrupted his study after two years to serve three years in the U.S. Navy, returning to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering in 1955. He then went on to acquire a Master of Science in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California in 1970.

Arriving for about 18 months of flight training at the Pensacola Naval Air Station on January 26, 1949, Neil became qualified as a Naval Aviator for carrier landings two weeks after his 20th birthday. He was soon assigned to an all-jet squadron, making his first flight in an F9F-2B Panther on January 5, 1951. Six months later he achieved his first jet carrier landing on the USS Essex which then set sail for Korea.

Neil’s F9F Panther was hit by anti-aircraft fire while making a low bombing run at about 350 mph near Wonsan. While attempting to regain control, his aircraft collided with a 20 foot high pole that sliced off about three feet of his right wing. Although he managed to fly back to friendly territory, he was forced to eject over an airfield near Pohang where he was picked up in a jeep driven by his flight school roommate. Following 78 Korean missions with 121 hours in the air, Neil received the Air Medal for 20 combat missions, a gold Star for another 20, and the Korean Service Medal.

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